During a reception at Windsor Castle for Armistice Day, the King embraced a World War II veteran who left him emotional after he was profusely thanked for attending a service earlier this year despite his cancer treatment
King Charles has shared an emotional moment with a 105-year-old veteran of the Second World War during a reception at Windsor Castle. Charles was joined by Queen Camilla, Prince William, Prince Edward and the Duchess of Gloucester last night as they honoured veterans who have served in the Pacific in the war as well as their families in honour of Armistice Day.
The special outing came as this year marks 80 years since the end of the Second World War and VJ Day. The day on August 15 marks the anniversary of Japan’s surrender to the Allies following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, effectively ending the Second World War.
READ MORE: ‘I worked for King Charles and noticed his true bond with Princess Beatrice’READ MORE: Meghan Markle quotes Harry in ‘Once served. Always serving’ Remembrance Day post
During the reception, Charles was reunited with 105-year-old Yavar Abbas, who served as a combat cameraman in the British Army during the conflict. Abbas had already met Charles and Queen Camilla at a service of remembrance in Staffordshire earlier this year.
At an event commemorating VJ Day in August, Mr Abbas gave a surprise address to Charles and Camilla, thanking them for attending the event despite the ongoing cancer treatment for the King, and it appeared to move the couple to tears.
The veteran was set to read extracts from his diary recalling his time in Burma in 1945, but instead, turned to address the “brave king”. Mr Abbas paid tribute to the King for continuing his work while undergoing cancer treatment. He said: “I make no apologies for briefly going off the script to salute my brave King, who is here with his beloved Queen in spite of the fact that he is under treatment for cancer.”
He added: “I salute him for gracing this occasion, because by his presence here, he has gone a long way to make sure that his grandad’s 14th Army is never given the sobriquet again of The Forgotten Army.” Both Charles and Camilla were reduced to tears after Abbas’ off-script address, as applause rang out amongst the crowd of 1,500 guests.
At Windsor last night, Charles and Mr Abbas shared a few words before hugging, afterwards he said: “I told him, ‘We can’t go on meeting like this.’”
“I was very much looking forward to meeting him again. I have a lot of respect for His Majesty, not just as a monarch, but as a human being. It’s wonderful to meet him and to know that he is improving, because I had cancer and I got rid of it.”
Mr Abbas is originally from Lucknow in India, and was commissioned into the British Army in India in 1942 as a second lieutenant in the 11th Sikh Regiment. He went on to train as a combat cameraman and began documenting the war and its effects, from battles in Burma to occupied Japan, including Hiroshima.
The veteran was then asked what message he wanted to pass down to younger generations, to which he replied: “I am angry with the world and I am ashamed. I thought I fought a war to have a better world and I find that I am in a worse world than I was in at the time.”
The reception at Windsor Castle came after a busy Remembrance Week for the royal family, as the Princess of Wales led the nation in a poignant two-minute silence on a moving visit to the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
William also marked Armistice Day by telling young people about the importance of wearing a red poppy and that “remembrance is for everyone”, while Camilla joined commuters on a train from Chippenham to London Paddington to take part in Great Western Railway’s Poppies to Paddington initiative.
